Let me start off by saying in the past that I have been on 6 carnival cruises, and I was in their corner for being one of the industry leaders. After returning yesterday from a 7 day cruise on the Conquest, my wife, my friends, and I have all decided that it will be our last Carnival cruise.

The first thing you notice about Carnival is that they can care less about customer loyalty. We not only have sailed with them 6 times, but we have sold no less than 30 cabins for them over those six cruises. On this particular cruise we took our daughter, and paid for ½ of her shared cabin, and got no credit for it at all. All they give you for that customer loyalty is a Gold sign and sail card ..whoopee!!! Other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean give you vip boarding and many other amenities after just 5 cruises, and also give you extras when you bring friends with you.

Now for the cruise itself. Embarkation in Galveston was fine. Allow about an hour or so to get on the ship. And....amazingly, our luggage was in our room by 5:00Pm. But...get ready for this. Up and down the hall there was a buzz from all passengers. Our luggage had been rifled through...not looking for guns or bombs..or security items. They were looking for Liquor, and confiscating any liquor brought on to the ship. In all the years we have cruised Carnival, nothing like this has ever happened. They went through my wifes and my luggage, and we felt violated. These are not homeland security people....these are the foreigners that work for Carnival looking at your luggage for their own gain. Find that liquor and get it out! Then they can charge you almost $8.00 for a Crown Drink or $ 6.00 for a beer. They will tell you that they sell drinks for the average going rate, but what they don't tell you is that they are selling duty/tax free liquor that cost about 30 percent of what you pay for a bottle at your favorite liquor store. So they are maximizing profit in that area. Read more